Many of the medical care garments and products, protective wear garments, mortuary and veterinary products, and personal care products in use today are partially or wholly constructed of sheet materials such as extruded filamentary or fibrous web materials such as nonwoven web materials and extruded polymeric film materials. Examples of such products include, but are not limited to, medical and health care products such as surgical drapes, gowns and bandages, protective workwear garments such as coveralls and lab coats, and infant, child and adult personal care absorbent articles such as diapers, training pants, disposable swimwear, incontinence garments and pads, sanitary napkins, wipes and the like. Other uses for nonwoven web materials and polymeric film materials include geotextiles and house wrap materials. For these applications the sheet materials provide functional, tactile, comfort and/or aesthetic properties.
The properties of sheet materials may be altered to produce desired characteristics. It is known to cause a transverse or cross machine direction stretch or extension to a sheet material, for example to increase its width, or to make the sheet material more readily extendible in subsequent use, or to cause orientation of the molecules of an orientable polymeric sheet material. It is also known to produce topographical or surface features in sheet materials to provide, for example, aesthetic visual and/or tactile properties. In addition, it is known to produce apertures in sheet materials to provide aesthetic visual and/or tactile properties as well as altering the fluid handling characteristics of the sheet material. Notwithstanding the foregoing, there exists a continuing need for apparatus and methods for deforming sheet materials, for these and other applications.